Kevin Durant makes Houston Rockets an INSTANT contender for the NBA Finals

Kevin Durant makes Houston Rockets an INSTANT contender for the NBA Finals

what’s up guys thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos also make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements kevin Durant is now Houston Rocket and in return the Phoenix Suns are getting Jaylen Green a young player with tons of potential but maddening uh downsides at this point dylan Brooks who I actually think is a very good role player in the NBA yeah he is the 10th pick in this upcoming draft and five second round picks what was like your first impression when you heard my my first impression the Suns were three and 17 when KD didn’t play this year they stunk it wasn’t him he still get a bucket if he’s a leader in Houston it doesn’t work if you need a bucket in Houston it works and I think I think today you have to look at the Rockets my take is um he’s going to give you about 65 games in the regular season if we get two healthy years then everybody’s going to watch Houston vive for the NBA championship and feel like they dominated the trade it is however a very good draft so Phoenix gets the number two 10 pick well many people are theorizing there are 12 players in this draft the top 12 players who are allstar potential so if they stay at 10 or move up to six or eight they’re getting a potentially really good player probably with more than one year in college um and and again I don’t think anybody will ever unlock Jaylen Green like I think he’s the classic doesn’t have a defined game never probably will but we can’t deny that he can drop 30 in any given moment that he’s wildly talented i don’t like his game but I’m not going to deny that he’s you know long twitchy fast very good transition player he’s just and there are a lot of these guys in the NBA you know they come in and they’re talented and maybe either they don’t work on their game or they don’t get the right coaching or they just they probably have so much talent from sixth grade on that they never really there’s no catalyst for them to like really burrow down on a specialized you know not everybody is just driven as MJ right like not I’m reading the Caitlyn Clark book i mean that girl’s be she is MJ she’s obsessed and it’s just like not everybody’s like that some people are just talented and so but but between Amen Thompson and Shenon who’s beautiful touch Kevin Durant and a series of four or five very good young players and I think Adula is a very good coach that’s a real team but I but I but I think it’s easy to look at Phoenix and just go well they got Green’s productive dylan Brooks is a very good small forward defender can give you 17 a night you got the number 10 pick you got a bunch of second round picks which you can turn those into things phoenix wanted a little bit of a reboot they got it but people on the internet are like “Oh Houston dominated if Katie got hurt in game 36 it wouldn’t feel like Houston dominated.” Right they’re not bringing him there to be a foundational piece they’re bringing him in to get a bucket like he will not be the leader of Shenon will still be the I think the centerpiece of the team amen Thompson will be your best athlete and your defensive stopper he’s going to be a bucket guy so that’s why I think it works he’s still one of the top 23 26 best players in the league I would argue i mean I I was on on the plane when I I was flying in today i I started writing down numbers and I got to like 21 i’m like he’s in that space and again Phoenix was terrible when he didn’t play so that’s my long- winded answer on I think Houston will look like they won the trade but Phoenix got assets too i think that what happened in Phoenix is a sign that like yeah KD Steph LeBron these guys they’re not floor raisers anymore at their age they’re not going to turn a bad roster into a 50- win team the way that 27year-old Nicole Joic could like that that goes without saying i don’t I do think though that KD has been dramatically underrated because he’s been on such a poor roster yes I put this together for you Colin this is three stats to show that Kevin Durant is still one of the very best players in the NBA he was the best jump shooter in the world this year among 58 players in the NBA to take at least 500 jump shots kd was the only player in the league to make over half of them and he in second place was Shay who made 45% and if you waited it for threes his 1.22 22 points per shot was still number one in the NBA number two he was the only player in the NBA last year to make at least 200 pull-up jump shots meaning off the dribble while making more than half of them and three he was far and away the best isolation player in the world last year out of the 10 players ran at least 250 ISOs his 1.16 points per possession including passes ranked number one in the league a full six points per 100 possessions ahead of Sheay who was in second place i think he is when it comes to refined offensive skill he is still one of the very best players in the league i I would put him in that six to 15 range depending on and we haven’t seen him play enough high leverage basketball lately to see where he really lands in there but I think he’s still in that range and if you ask me what the Rockets issue was this is a deep team with a load of big physical athletes if you ask me what their one weak weakness was it’s refined offensive skill and that’s what KD comes in to address we were just talking about this with Desmond Bane in the Orlando Magic the other day when you take a bunch of big athletes that kind of struggle with spacing and you bring in a guy who like just run him off a screen and he’s automatically going to pull two defenders out 30 feet from the basket it unlocks a world of possibilities on the short roll amen thompson will be an amazing short roll player you know that thing that Draymond Green did for Steph where Steph would come off of Draymond and take two players and then Draymond would go right down the middle of the floor and and make the play that broke the defense down that is a thing that Amen Thompson has been unable to do in Houston because they just don’t generate many of those opportunities cuz none of their shooters are good enough kd will unlock that part of Amen Thompson’s game it is not a perfect roster i was writing down all the names on the roster today they’re a little light on ball handling but that sort of thing they can get you know what’s so funny Colin i remember when they the Suns signed Taius Jones last summer i was like why you already have this redundancy of all these dudes who can dribble and you’re just not athletic enough and you’re not good enough on defense like you need athletes and dudes that can like like beat up people in these physical environments you know who could really use Taius Jones houston like I I think they should call I think Kevin Durant should call up Tyus tomorrow and be like “Hey dude come with me.” Yeah i think I think Phoenix I wish Phoenix would have gotten actually a size i think Phoenix needs size and I think Houston needs a ball handler and the our takeaway when we watched Golden State beat Houston we were like “God they’re so bad in a half court offense if you stop Shenon it’s over right?” Like it’s just And so you and I talked about this he was a perfect fit there i thought he worked in New York because of Jaylen Brunson’s you know uh has the ball a lot in his hands i thought he he would work with that offense um whereas Cat can kind of I always felt like Cat and Brunson were playing you know your turn my turn your turn my turn kd’s kind of like I’ll sit in the I did it with Russ Westbrook i’ll sit in the corner get it to me eventually so I think he fits really really well um and I think they have the coach i I think again it’s so hard to judge Houston because so much of their roster is young i like feel like everybody’s in the fourth inning like I mean Amen thompson could take a big leap i mean Shenun’s the only one where I look at him and I think “Oh that,” again I use this word a lot but that’s a defined and refined offensive game he’s got European touch like he has a game a lot of their players I feel like they’re just in early innings i don’t know what they are so Eman Thompson’s obviously defensively defined he’s so strong and athletic and aggressive but KD gives them refinement this is a second offensive player i know exactly what I’m getting and that’s that goes back to a little Oklahoma City the one of the reasons Indiana gave OKC problems saiakam has an offensive halfcourt game hallebertton does tj McConnell does like that’s three guy even Obi Toppen when he hits threes you’re like he’s athletic and hit threes they had guys that they Rick Carlile knew okay this is what this player does with Houston Houston’s like a younger OKC i’m just not sure what everybody is like I just need more guys that I go into a game and go “Yeah I’m going to get 24th tonight from KD and I can drop two or three plays for him.” So Houston to me is early innings they could end up being they could end up looking if you told me next year a team explodes in the West and ends up winning by 7.8 points i would guess Houston because they have so many players that are just going to springboard to another level here in the next 50 to 100 basketball games oh no I totally agree i think they have massive upside i think they could very easily be the second best team in the West and the biggest threat to the Thunder next year i think that’s absolutely on the table they match up well with OKC too because they have all the big physical size the ball handling will be the weakness as we saw with Indiana even Oklahoma City struggled because of their lack of depth and ball handling against Indiana’s ball pressure but the the youth the the the thing that you’re talking about in terms of the wide range of outcomes is super interesting because as I was breaking down their depth chart today I’m looking at it and I’m like “Okay Fred Van Vleet legit point guard.” you know Shangon center KD’s your four amen thompson I think defensively functions as either a two or a three so that that could be either but then it’s like Jabari Smith Jr is kind of a four he plays basically the same position as KD i don’t think he moves his feet well enough to be a three cam Whitmore could be one of those guys reed Shepard could be one of those guys but like who knows and and here’s the other thing too Colin houston gave up one first round draft pick in this deal they still have a boatload of first round draft picks at their disposal so they’re high they’re like a high likelihood for like a we bring this team into camp we watch them for 20 games and we go “Oh here are the two things we’re missing.” That’s exactly right let’s go get what we need to get like they are they’re extremely well equipped heading into next season that’s where Houston won the trade they didn’t have to give up another first round pick that that’s where they won the trade it’s not just KD because my guess is because of their depth they won’t play KD more than like 60 to 65 games they want him for the postseason there’s no reason to play him 75 80 games uh because they also know if you’re in the West Jason you know you’re going to be in long series so there’s no I mean you know you’re going to be in six game series in the West it’s not like the East where you kind of feel like if Hallebertton comes back next year they’re just certain you’re going to win a lot of series really quickly you’re going to have long series in the West no reason to have you know I want KD going into the playoffs you know off about a two games in nine days stretch healthy and ready to go and I think you have to think about that as a GM with an older player in the West if you have a Stepher a KD all these series are long series if they get a couple more ball handlers like that’s the thing like if they get a Taius Jones if they get you know one other guy of that ilk then they will be able to rest KD not just for the regular season but even in the postseason like we saw Houston give themselves a really good chance to win games even without highle offensive skill because they just go here’s Tari E and and Amen Thompson and we’re picking up full court and you’re turning the ball over now and it’s a mess like they are able like they are able to prevent the redundancy that Phoenix had where you have bunch of guys who do the same thing on Houston what KD does is so specialized for them that they kind of have an identity separate separate from him so they will be able to win games without him they will be able to carry the load so that he can come in and lift them over the top i I think it’s a I think it’s a fantastic on paper basketball it’ll be ugly sometimes katie’s gonna have some nights where maybe the statistical performance isn’t there because it’s ugly they can’t space the floor as well for him but they will in turn do the same thing to the other team so what that to buy Kevin that margin for error

Colin Cowherd and Jason discuss Kevin Durant being traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets, how he fits with the new roster, why Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun are great fits with KD, and why the Rockets can be an instant contender.

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